Campaign signs line Green Springs Highway in front of Greens Springs Baptist Church. Voting for the City of Birmingham City Council and Board of Education was Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009. (The Birmingham News / Joe Songer)

Only three of the eight incumbents running for the Birmingham City Council won their seats Tuesday night, while four were headed for runoffs and one lost his seat.

Incumbent Joel Montgomery lost his race to Lashunda Scales in council District 1.

Council President Carole Smitherman is headed for a runoff, along with Carol Reynolds Duncan, Johnathan Austin and Roderick Royal, according to unofficial returns. The District 7 race, which had no incumbent candidate, also is headed for a runoff.

And two former council members are now in runoffs for their old seats. Elias Hendricks will face Austin in the race for District 5. Leroy Bandy will face Royal in the race for District 9.

Natalie Davis, a political science professor at Birmingham-Southern College, Tuesday night said a low voter turnout made a difference for incumbents.

"In low turnout elections, everything is unpredictable because you just don't know what's motivating people to vote, "she said.

Birmingham voters have created a recent anti-incumbency trend, she added.

"It's been typical for the last three cycles," she said. "Now you have much more heterogeneous and diverse voter bases. No one person is king."In one of the most heated races, Smitherman, who is seeking a third term, and challenger Sheila Tyson, president of the Citizens Advisory Board and the West End Neighborhood Association, have traded barbs over the airwaves in a series of radio ads, each accusing the other of being a bad choice for the district.

With a backdrop of classic soul music, Smitherman and her family huddled around a laptop watching election results trickle in Tuesday night, while supporters ate barbecue.

Just a few blocks away on the same street, Tyson gathered with her supporters. Tyson said she is ready for a runoff against Smitherman.

"She can bring it on because she's doesn't have a proven record," Tyson said. "She's a big liar."

Both candidates accused the other of running a negative campaign.

"Who is the puppet? I raised my money from local people," Tyson said. "She got her money from over the mountain, under the mountain, through the mountain and in the alley. She can't challenge me on nothing because the people in the neighborhoods hate her."

After votes had been tallied, Smitherman challenged Tyson to a televised debate. "Now we are down to one person, she'll have to show her record," Smitherman said. "At every debate I attended, she failed to show up."

Scales led the vote tally with 1,724 votes, or 51 percent of the vote, followed by Cummings, with 971 votes, or 29 percent. Montgomery received 361 votes, or 11 percent.

"We're encouraged," Scales said as she waited for final poll results. "The people of District 1 have spoken and want to see changes and progress in our community. I am the candidate who wants to bring about visible change."

District 2
Challenger Kim Rafferty, with 815 votes or 28 percent of the votes, and Duncan, with 775 votes or 27 percent, appeared headed to a runoff.

"I'm really disappointed," said Duncan, a two-term incumbent, of having failed to win outright. "I've worked hard for eight years."

Rafferty said she was "quite honored, quite flabbergasted and excited" to have made it this far in her first City Council campaign. She also said she was "very ashamed and disappointed" at the low voter turnout.

District 3
Incumbent Valerie Abbott won a third term with 60 percent of the 2,329 votes cast. Abbott defeated Birmingham school board member Howard Bayless III, who received 1,462 votes for 38 percent, and political newcomer Wil Jones, with 93 votes for approximately 2 percent.

District 4
Incumbent Maxine Herring Parker appeared headed to another term on the council. Parker received 1,347 votes, or 69 percent of votes.

District 5
Elias Hendricks led a field of six contenders with 751 votes, or 34 percent. He will likely face Austin, who garnered 616 votes for 28 percent, in a runoff.

Hendricks hopes to reclaim the council seat he won in 2001 but lost in a comeback bid of William Bell.

Austin was appointed to the seat in December when Bell was elected to the Jefferson County Commission.

District 6
Smitherman had 1,569, or 43 percent, while Tyson had 1,423, or 39 percent, of the vote.

District 7
Jay Roberson and Ernestine Guest Williams will be in a runoff, with Roberson receiving 1,582 votes, or 45 percent, of the votes, to Williams' 929 votes, or 27 percent. The new council member will take the seat of former Councilwoman Miriam Witherspoon, who died in April.

District 8
Incumbent Steven Hoyt won a third term, with 1,446 votes, or 55 percent, of the vote. Challenger Gerri Robinson received 1,167 votes, or 45 percent.

Hoyt said his victory is evidence that voters in District 8 are independent.

"They said no to the block vote and yes to hard work and ethics," Hoyt said in a phone interview.

Former Mayor Richard Arrington Jr., and Langford campaigned on behalf of Hoyt's opponent.

"We have more informed and better educated voters in District 8," Hoyt said. "They don't follow the blue ballot," he said, referring to the ballot distributed by Arrington's New Jefferson County Citizens Coalition.

District 9
Royal was headed into a runoff with Bandy. Royal had 1,265 votes, or 41 percent, and Bandy had 558 votes, or 18 percent.